Nissan teases new Corolla rival

Nissan has released the first teaser image of a new-generation Pulsar hatchback that will be revealed in Europe tomorrow (May 20) and should eventually be sold in Australia.

Officially, Nissan Australia says it does not currently plan to introduce the new European-market Pulsar, which will adopt the same name as the Thailand-sourced small hatch and sedan sold in Australia’s single biggest vehicle segment.

“Nissan Australia will continue selling the current Australian-market Pulsar in both hatch and sedan format for the local small car market,” said Nissan Australia Corporate Communications General Manager, Peter Fadayev.

However, Nissan’s global product planning chief Andy Palmer recently told motoring.com.au the Japanese car-maker’s multi-vehicle C-segment (small car) strategy would make way for a single global model approach, meaning Europe’s new Pulsar should eventually replace the Thai-built model currently sold here.

Speaking at last month’s New York motor show, Palmer all but confirmed Nissan would use the Paris motor show on October 2 to reveal a new small hatch that would be sold in all markets globally.

“We’re bringing the [new] C-segment hatchback later on this year,” he said. “Why don’t you come to Paris and find out?”

Asked if he knew whether the new model would eventually replace Australia’s current Pulsar, Palmer said: “Yes, I know, but am I going to tell you? No, I can’t”, before confirming Nissan would not continue to produce different small hatchbacks for different markets including Australia.

“But we’ll not have a car that’s sitting in Galapagos. It can’t sit by itself. So one way or another there needs to be a C-segment hatch in Australia and eventually at some point or other it needs to converge,” he said.

Nissan has confirmed its new Pulsar five-door will be built in its Spanish plant in Barcelona and released across Europe in the Northern Hemisphere Autumn (September-November).

The new Pulsar, which Nissan says is “designed to meet the specific demands of European car buyers”, will be a belated replacement for Europe’s discontinued Almera hatch – Nissan’s last model in the European C-Segment.

While the Almera name is currently applied to Australia’s smaller Micra-based sedan, the Pulsar nameplate first appeared in 1978 but was replaced in 2006 by the unsuccessful Tiida badge in Australia, where the Pulsar name returned with the current Thai-built hatch and sedan range from February 2013.

So far this year, however, Pulsar sales are down more than 25 per cent in an overcrowded small-car segment in which it ranks sixth behind the Mazda3 (sales of which are up by almost 14 per cent), Toyota Corolla (up four per cent), Hyundai i30 (up 12 per cent), Ford Focus (down 11 per cent), Holden Cruze (down 26 per cent) and Volkswagen Golf (up 41 per cent).

Speaking to motoring.com.au over the weekend, Nissan Australia’s new managing director Richard Emery indicated he was keen to get his hands on the new ‘Golf fighter’, but said the new Pulsar was not yet on Australia’s radar.

“It’s not in our plan but of course it is a potential,” he said after returning to Australia from a trip to Nissan in Japan and Infiniti in Hong Kong, which included a meeting with Palmer and several hours in a design centre looking at future models.

“As I am coming in freshly, of course I am going to look at what is available to us and ask the question. ‘So why haven’t we got that? What do we need to do to get that?’ It would be mad for me not to ask those questions.

“What I can tell you is the car they are going to show is not at this point slated for Australia.”

Emery admitted the latest Pulsar – which despite being just over a year old holds a slim 4.2 per cent share of the sizeable small-car segment, placing it only narrowly ahead of the Honda Civic and aged Mitsubishi Lancer – has been less than successful.

“The challenge is our consumer tastes are a bit more European and American, but in terms of distribution we are kind of in Asia. So finding the cars that are available to us in the right configuration is the challenge we have to get right,” he said.

“So I will certainly be asking questions like ‘why can’t we have that car?’. There might be very good, logical reasons why not, whether it be they are only building it in left-hand drive or something else. Engines, particularly, are another issue.”

In the short-term, Emery said Nissan Australia will attempt to improve its offer with the current Pulsar sedan (priced from $19,990) and hatch (from $19,290), but conceded that will not happen this year.

“From a product perspective… we need to find a way forward with Pulsar and if there is an opportunity to take a different version of a similar car, or a different specification structure, then we will certainly be doing that.

“But that is not going to happen this year. We are kind of tied to the product line-up we have at the moment and certainly we are not yet on the list of markets for this so-called Golf fighter.”

Nissan also revealed a new four-door C-segment concept at last month’s Beijing show, but the small Lannia sedan concept appears to preview a China-only model at this stage.

It’s equally unclear whether the Spanish-built Pulsar hatch, which has been spied in testing, will be made outside Europe in countries like Thailand for export to countries like Australia.

However, judging by Palmer’s comments in New York, it’s likely both new small Nissan models will eventually become global C-segment sister cars for all markets including Australia.